British publishing giant Informa is shutting down two well-known brands that have covered the goings-on of the television industry for four decades.
On Friday, readers of Digital TV Europe and Television Business International (TBI) were greeted with messages posted by an editor that said the brands were closing, effective immediately.
The closure will also affect a handful of newsletters published by both brands, the VideoTech Innovation Awards and the recently-launched Media & Entertainment Leaders Summit.
No reason for the closure was announced, and it was not clear how many jobs will be lost or whether affected employees will be allowed to apply for positions at other Informa brands. As of January, Informa employed around 350 full-time reporters and editors across 200-plus media brands and websites, including Light Reading, Information Week, Nation’s Restaurant News and Magic. Informa also owns well-known industry-focused services, including Omdia.
Related: Visit The Desk’s Europe & UK homepage
Digital TV Europe started as a print publication called Cable & Satellite. It was one of the first to robustly cover the television industry throughout Europe, including the launch of Sky television in the mid-1980s, French distributor Canal Plus’ decision to offer pay television over broadcast, and the first direct-to-home satellite channel on Eutelsat.
“Digital TV Europe has reported on all these developments and more, covering the industry’s waves of prosperity and retrenchment and the ever-present underlying force of technological change,” Stuart Thomson, the editor of Digital TV Europe, said in a statement to readers.
TBI has been around for nearly as long, offering news and insights on the business portion of the sector within Europe and beyond for 35 years.
“Everyone at TBI would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest thanks to our thousands of readers around the world and our hundreds of contributors who have supported us throughout the years,” a TBI editor wrote in a statement. “TBI has documented everything from the emergence of pay TV to the decline of linear broadcasting and the ongoing drama caused by the shift to streaming. Its archives are a treasure trove of history that reflect how the industry has transformed and how people have adapted along the way.”
The closures of Digital TV Europe and TBI follows similar moves at other publications that cover the broadcast industry.
Last August, the radio publication All Access announced it would stop publishing regular updates amid a slowdown in advertising sales. It later reversed that decision in part, moving forward with layoffs that affected all editorial employees while continuing to offer some data-driven services.
Earlier this year, the website TV NewsCheck said it would stop publishing on a temporary basis while it focused on building out its events business. The company said it needed around $300,000 to restart its publication. It isn’t clear if the publication found the money, but it resumed operations a few weeks later.
